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New School

Welcome to our New School webpage where we will keep you updated on aspects of the build, community engagement and the activities of students and staff.

The announcement of the consolidation of Armidale High School and Duval High School heralds the opportunity to repurpose not only the physical environment but most significantly redesign learning to equip our students for the future. With globalisation and technology transforming the world, mastery of knowledge and test-taking skills are no longer enough to succeed.

Our vision statement for our new school is Our Future, Our Learning. This points to a school that empowers students, educators, parents and industry to collectively engage in learning. We understand that we are all learners and we participate in learning in multiple contexts and settings across our lifetimes. This school will be a hub of learning which will engage the broader community. Our school will be clearly focused on working in partnership with you as parents and carers and being responsive to student voice to ensure that we are building a school culture that helps students become lifelong learners.

We know that there is an imperative for change and we must prepare our students to be citizens in societies that are under pressure; we need to equip them to be lifelong learners, with the resilience to embrace the changes ahead of them. As educators we need to ensure that our young people not only acquire foundational and technical skills, but they are able to deploy those skills in an increasingly enterprising way. And amongst all this we need to help them to be critical thinkers, with a sense of self and the capacity to become compassionate and committed citizens.

A new building or new technologies will not improve the learning outcomes of our students on their own. This is epic work and students, teachers and leaders here at Armidale High School and Duval must adapt their practices to make the best educational use of this significant investment. We are not waiting for our education system to tell us what to do or how to do it, we are already experimenting with immersive, project-based and real-world learning experiences that go beyond the classroom environment.

The collaboration between the teaching staff within and between schools is already focusing on supporting peers and sharing teaching practices. Similarly, our students have approached the opportunity to work together on many initiatives with enthusiasm and maturity. Collaboration will bring success and I am both motivated and humbled by the level of engagement of staff and students across both school sites and their commitment to work together toward a common purpose. If the mark of success of this new school is to be measured by the commitment of staff to support the learning and wellbeing of your children then we will be the most outstanding school.

Carolyn Lasker, Principal AHS

We know life is incredibly busy but we do encourage you to try to stay informed about developments happening with the school. The best way to do this is by:

Read the newsletter which will continue to be issued monthly next year. Encourage your friends to register via the website, www.armidalefutureschool.com.au

If you're a parent or student, read your school newsletter (AHS or DHS) for updates;